Worried by the large number of unemployed graduates in the country, the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Lagos branch, has urged youths to acquire vocational training skills that will enable them create wealth.

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Slot Systems Limited, Nnami Ezeigbo, who spoke at the 2018 Annual Public Lecture/Awards and Induction ceremony of NSE, advised youths to depend less on their certificates, but more on skills that can create wealth.

According to him: “Nigerian youths are just depending so much on their certificates. Certificate does not create wealth. It is just a way of developing your mind, you just trying to be equal with your peers. If you want to create wealth, attend trainings that can help you acquire the knowledge and competence to create wealth.”

At the event, which had: “From engineering to entrepreneurship: The Rainoil story’, as its theme, Ezeigbo berated the country’s university education system for not structured to help youths create wealth, saying: “If you want to be a wealth creator, you need to acquire training to help you become one. Medical doctors go through the houseman ship period after their university education. For business people or students who want to become entrepreneurs, you need to acquire training. That was what I did when I discovered that my degree was not enough to create the kind of wealth I needed or get me the kind of job I needed.”

Urging the institutions of learning to emphasise more on critical thinking and problem-solving skills needed to create wealth outside the university, he said: “Enough of the cramming and pouring during exams. We need to evaluate life-changing skills that have to do with application of the training we receive. We need to look at our traditional way of teaching and change them.”

Group Managing Director, RainOil Nigeria Limited, Gabriel Ogbechie, who was the guest speaker at the event which inducted 60 members into the body of engineers, said the NSE used induction ceremony not just to induct the new members, but also teach them entrepreneurship skills and prepare them for the future as they start their professional life.

Lamenting the lo utilisation of indigenous engineers by government, but relies more on expatriates to execute projects, Ogbechie noted that young indigenous engineers should be given opportunity to demonstrate their competencies.NSE Chairman, Mr. Johnson Akinwande, who decried the hopelessness among youths due to the high unemployment rate, advised that they should acquire entrepreneurial skills instead of hoping to work for others.